BROTHERHOOD OF RAILROAD SIGNALMEN LOCAL 20

The next regular meeting of Brotherhood Of Railroad Signalmen Local 20 will be Saturday, November 2, 2013 at 8:30a.m. at Country Inn & Suites Naperville, located at 1837 Centre Point Circle, Naperville, IL. Here are brief minutes from our last meeting held September 7, 2013 in Lacrosse, WI.

The meeting opened at 8:30 a.m. with 7 officers, 4 regular members, 3 retirees, and 1 guest present.A treasury balance of $ 93,080.79 in checking and c.d.’s in the amount of $ 21,592.50 was reported. There were 22 new members voted in.

Joe Baker discussed the following: An investigation on a lone worker in CTC territory, and the impairment our PPE has on our ability to see and hear. Joe recommends stop using lone worker.He also discussed if you are sent home early to save on hours of service, you are on duty until you get home, and if we get in trouble or are brought in for any kind of questioning, have union representation with you.

Joe Lokken discussed the following: Strong armed supervision and the resulting investigations of a particular company official, an investigation concerning 2 signalmen locating cable, and filling out injury and accident reports.

Jerry Moore discussed the following: Two maintainers getting paid for generator claims, the importance of staying off cell phones when near track, and hour of service reports being inaccuratewhen we are having these extremely long cutovers.

Nate Estes discussed the following: The required 10 hours rest after a tour of duty, waivers for 3 signal men for a cable hit after it had been located.Nate stressed the importance of following signal instruction 1.2 and engineering instruction 26, and he followed up with the fact that he sent questions to Greg Dunaway, signal director regarding these rules. Nate also talked about an activation failure at Lowder, and an issue with the Palmyra crews’ winter gear being stolen while they were home from working off district, and here’s a surprise, the railroad will not pay to replace their winter clothes. That’s what teamwork is all about, I guess.

Craig McLaren discussed the following: The importance of following the rules, as he has been extremely busy with investigations this summer.Here’s a list of his issues, a maintainer ran into a switch machine in Chicago and received a level “s” instead of a formal reprimand, a member let a medical procedure he had done while on vacation become known to supervision,who subsequently let medical know, had to then pass company clearance to return to work.And wait, there’s more; a member signed off on an unacceptable waiver from Manager Fezekas, and this is going to be protested, and an investigation was dropped over a time issue mistake.Looks like the good old days are gone in the Chicago area.Watch your backs.

Vice General Chairman Kelley Portlock discussed the following: the possibility of PTC deadlines being extended, the expansion in the oil fields in North Dakota, the use of GPS by the company to track us, and extending the sub contracting agreement.

New business: 3 new trustees will be appointed due to the fact the previous 3 have failed to attend 1 meeting per year, per by-laws, Article XII, section 2.A motion was made by Nate Estes, seconded by Joe Baker, and unanimously approved to amend the by-laws concerning election of local officers.This would be under Article IV, sections 2 and 3.The proposed change would change our elections from being held every 3 years to every 4 years.The first sentence of Section 2 would be changed to read, “Local Lodge officers shall serve for four years”. The first sentence of Section 3 would be changed to read, “ The Local Chairman-Delegate and other members of the Local Grievance Committee shall be elected in a quadrennial election by secret ballot and serve for four years, or until successors have been elected. Section 6 of Article V, last sentence will be changed to read, “The ballots will show that the individual member is being elected for the dual position at the time of election and will be retained in office for four years”. These changes will be voted upon by members present at the Naperville, IL. meeting on November 2, 2013.

I hope to see a lot of you at the Naperville meeting, and would once again ask that anyone who would like to receive this letter by e-mail please let me know.If you have any type of status change, (address change, work status, e-mail or phone etc.) please let me know at 309-202-1260 or brslocal20@comcast.net

I also would encourage all members to check out our Local 20 website, brslocal20.org.

Contact me or Nate Estes 217-710-8594 about getting full access to it.

brslocal20@comcast.net or eleeson@hotmail.com